ZOOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 349 



nomena, he is extending his control in the sphere of nature and turning 

 natural forces to his advantage. 



The Study of Nature. — I now turn to another phase of the subject, 

 viz. : to a consideration of the effect upon mental life of advances in the 

 knowledge of natural phenomena. Let us, if possible, catch a glimpse 

 of the edifice that has been built upon the foundation since the early 

 naturalists broke ground and began operations. 



One of the most notable things of the last half century has been the 

 mental evolution produced by the great extension of knowledge of 

 organic nature. This more intimate acquaintance with natural phe- 

 nomena, and of living nature in particular, has altered our way of look- 

 ing at the world, and especially of our relation to it. The whole fabric 

 of thinking has been so profoundly changed by the biological advances 

 to which I refer that all educated people ought to make themselves ac- 

 quainted with the generalizations of biology and with the foundations 

 upon which they rest. This science is not a remote branch of learning ; 

 it touches every-day life at many points, and affects our well-being more 

 closely than is generally realized. 



The study of nature and the explanation of natural phenomena pos- 

 sess an inherent interest to which most minds respond. The physicist 

 and chemist have for their territory the field of inorganic nature, but 

 the biologist has the advantage of dealing with the living world. 

 There is, in reality, nothing in the sphere of knowledge more fascina- 

 ting than the study of life. Any reference to the part that bacteria play 

 in the world awakens a responsive interest. Eeferences to the doctrine 

 of evolution, and the light it throws on the origin of the human body as 

 well as on the races of animals, arouse attention. The teachings of 

 science in reference to the life of the globe have awakened wonder, 

 sometimes dissent, but always interest. 



Zoology the Central Subject. — Now the kind of knowledge to which 

 I am referring belongs to the domain of biology, and in that domain 

 zoology is the central subject. Many people think of zoology as it was 

 in the time of Linnaeus, or, at best, as it was in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century, when the spiritless activity of species-making was 

 its prominent feature. It is no longer merely a mass of knowledge that 

 enables its devotees to name animals and to arrange systematically a 

 cabinet. Zoology of to-day is vastly different ; it has become one of the 

 leading departments of science. While dealing with the structure, the 

 development and the evolution of animal life, it at the same time brings 

 one into contact with those changes in human opinion for which its own 

 advances have been largely responsible. 



From the group of the natural sciences there emerges into prominent 

 place the princely science of zoology. As was said before, it is the cen- 

 tral subject in all that advance in the knowledge of organic nature to 

 which reference has been made. It is best fitted, it seems to me, to give 



